My aim is to offer insights into some of the more subtle principles underpinning prints. The commentary is based on thirty-eight years of teaching and the prints and other collectables that I am focusing on are those which I have acquired over the years.
In the galleries of prints (accessed by clicking the links immediately below) I am also adding fresh images offered for sale. If you get lost in the maze of links, simply click the "home" button to return to the blog discussions.

Condition:
strong and well-inked impression trimmed close to the margin line. The sheet is
in excellent condition apart from very faint traces of red lines that are
virtually invisible to the naked eye. Verso has surface sheen from traces of glue.

I am selling
this very rare old master etching from the 17th century for a total
cost of AU$159 (currently US$117.96/EUR106.71/GBP88.12 at the time of posting
this print) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are
interested in purchasing this etching exemplifying the principles of classical
landscape drawing, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I
will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

Although this finely
executed etching by Genoels displays many of the attributes associated with
classical landscape composition—especially the arrangement of trees and rocks
on the left and right sides framing a view into the far distance following the
course of a stream—what puzzles me about such an image by a Flemish master is
that the countryside that he portrays is not part of his home region.

From my recent
experience of seeing the city and surroundings of Antwerp, where Genoels was born,
trained and died, the countryside does not have the Alpine peaks that he
represents, even if there seems to be an abundance of streams. No doubt Genoels
travelled far beyond Antwerp and may have ventured into rugged terrain similar to
which he has drawn, but I suspect that the images that he found most pleasure
in portraying were those that he was not accustomed. In short, like most
artists, he drew everything that he was not.

Condition:
strong impression in excellent condition for its age but with surface dust and
signs of handling. Verso has a light pencil drawing that traces the image recto
and surface soiling.

I am selling
this superb (and rare) lithograph exemplifying the highest order of drawing for
a total cost of AU$136 (currently US$100.78/EUR91/GBP75.60 at the time of posting
this print) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are
interested in purchasing this remarkable original lithograph, please contact me
(oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make
the payment easy.

As is the case
with most of Julien’s lithographs, this beautifully executed study of a saint
was designed for budding artists to copy. Julien’s early training under Baron
Antoine-Jean Gros (1771–1835) could have led him down the path following in the
stylistic footsteps of his master as a grand history painter. Fame as a
lithographer who could draw like an angel, however, led Julien on the different
artistic trajectory. Like this print, Julien focused his considerable talent on
executing highly finished images that lightly touched the imagination of a
public that was eager to subscribe to ongoing publications of his lithographs..

This lithograph
is based on a drawing by the French artist, Raymond Auguste Quinsac Monvoisin (1790–1870).
Monvoisin’s reputation was forged when he travelled to Argentina and later briefly
settled in Chile. In Chile, Monvoisin became the director of the newly created Chilean
“Academy of Painting.” As a man of his time, Monvoisin invested in Chilean mines, established a ranch and was a fashionable painter in the local society. Sadly,
when Monvoisin returned to France his fame in Chile did not return with him and
he died in poverty at Boulogne-sur-Mer.

Condition:
rich, well-inked impression in good condition with small margins. There are
minor signs of soiling, otherwise the sheet is in remarkably good condition for
its age

This
print has been sold

Early biblical
illustrations, such as this one, invariably portray several scenes from the
relevant verses rather than focusing on a single scene. In this engraving
designed by one of the most famous artists of the 16th century, Maarten van
Heemskerck, the image is broken into three distinct cells containing different
narratives ultimately leading to Saint Peter healing—resurrecting in
truth—Tabitha. (I have proposed the specific text in the first post about this
print.) To my eyes, this treatment of the multi-narratives in this illustration
has all the elements of a theatrical stage production’s set design, in the
sense of using missing walls to reveal the action within.

Beyond the
management of the small narrative, what I find fascinating is the way that
Heemskerck portrays the age of the building. For example, note how the columns
and pedestals on the far left are portrayed in a state of deterioration. For
me, they almost look like some masonry-eating rats had a good gnaw at them.

I am selling
this pair of nineteenth century lithograph illustrations of fossil bones by
Burmeister for AU$125 in total (currently US$92.17/EUR83.51/GBP69.57 at the
time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the
world.

If you are interested in purchasing these stunning antique scientific
prints, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you
a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

I am selling
this poetic etching of the famous Notre Dame Cathedral by Le Riche for AU$98
(currently US$72.49/EUR65.91/GBP55.04 at the time of posting this print)
including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are
interested in purchasing this very romantic view of the Notre Dame by a prominent
sculptor, painter and printmaker at the dawn of the twentieth century—in the
sense that he wasa full
member of the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts and, in 1922, he was awarded both
a Gold Medal and the Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur from the French
government— please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send
you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

Le Riche studied
under Bourguereau and Robert-Fleury but the simple visual poetry of this view
across the Seine to the Notre Dame in the distance is far from the style of his
teachers. This is an unpretentious image but one that has been executed with subtlety
and knowledge. It presents the artist’s very personal response to seeing the
cathedral with all its familiar attributes of flying buttresses, dual towers
and sky-piercing spire, clouded in mist on a grey day in Paris.

What I love
about this print is the artist’s use of contrast. For instance, note how the
dark tones of the moored boat in the foreground, along with the dark leaves
dangling from above, create pictorial depth by their contrast with the much lighter
tones of the distant cathedral and sky.

In one sense
the leap between the two tonal extremes of dark foreground and light background
expresses space. In a very different reading, however, the suggestion of space
is modified by the vertical orientation of the marks. To my eyes, the
constraint posed by the use of vertical lines lends the print a spiritually
transcendent quality. Or to express this differently, instead of a viewer
reading INTO the image the viewer reads UP the image to heaven above: a
contrast between the temporal world and the spiritual world.

Condition:
superb richly inked impression with narrow upper and lower margins and cut on
the plate edge at left and right sides but still retaining the complete image;
otherwise the sheet is in very good condition for its age. There are
remnants—paper and minor glue stains—of past mounting (verso).

I am selling
this historically significant and visually arresting view of Roman ruins
executed in the 18th century for AU$133 in total (currently US$98.48/EUR89.34/GBP73.54
at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere
in the world. If you are interested in purchasing this quintessential 18th
century fantasy of what architectural ruins should look like, please contact me
(oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make
the payment easy.

At the time
that Pierre-François Basan (1723–97) was translating Pierre-Antoine Demachy’s
(1723–1807) design into this etching, there was a strong interest in ancient
ruins for the print buying public. The interest was not so much in seeing
meagre bits of architectural remains, what the public wanted to see were
remnants of architectural magnificence. Moreover, where the glory-days of
portrayed site could be comprehended and the “feel” of the ruins could be
experienced. This desire naturally led many of the documenters of what could be
seen in the various sites to add a dash of theatrical splendour to their
depictions. Even the most famous of these (pseudo) scientific documenters of
what could be seen at the various ruins, such as the amazing Giovanni Battista
Piranesi (1720–78), goes further than simply depicting the forms. For instance,
they added drama to their portrayal with strong lighting and curious
viewpoints. Going further, they also project the idea that the featured
architecture is in a state of transience (the notion of vanitas that was popular
at the time) by focusing on cracks, crumbling edges and vegetation taking root
within stonework.

Condition: rich
impression with generous margins. There is very light spotting, otherwise the
sheet is in excellent condition for its age.

I am selling
this exceptionally fine lithograph along with the lithograph shown below, which
is also of a fir/pine specimen by the same artist, (i.e. two lithographs by
Demanne after Deshayes) for AU$110 in total (currently US$81.56/EUR74.09/GBP60.86
at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere
in the world. If you are interested in purchasing this pair of botanical
drawings, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send
you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

Sometimes when
looking at drawings by a master the subtle principles underpinning the artist’s
approach to portraying a subject can be overlooked. Mindful of this potential,
I thought I would share a few of the principles that caught my eye that makes
this drawing wonderful.

First, note how
the artist—actually there are two artists involved in this study: Deshayes who
made the original drawing and Demanne who translated/copied his drawing for
this print—has used “white” lines to portray the individual pine-needles when
they are clumped as a dark mass and “black” lines to show the pine-needles at
the outer rim of their clumps.

Second, note
how the artist has applied the principle of only showing details, such as
contour marks (i.e. lines that are drawn to show the curving form of the
subject), in the half lights in the rendering of the cone. By this I mean that
the darker areas of the cone towards its base are not encumbered with contour
lines; the half-lit areas around the cone’s middle have contour marks, while
the more lit aspects of the cone towards its tip have very few contour marks.

Third, note how
the artist uses small lines and dots to punctuate spots of deepest shadow (e.g.
deepest points in the abutting segments of the cone) and critical textures
(e.g. the spiky nodes at the base of the lower branch).

Condition:
strong impression with minimal wear and with small margins. There is very light
spotting, and remnants of mounting (verso) otherwise the sheet is in remarkably
fine condition for its age.

I am selling
this rare, historically important and very beautiful etching for AU$226 in
total (currently US$167.36/EUR152.09/GBP125.01 at the time of posting this
listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world. If you are
interested in purchasing this etching by an old master please contact me
(oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the
payment easy.

This print has been sold

Jan Both made a
significant impact on the way that 17th century artists looked at the
landscape. Prints like this one, showed a fresh vision of how black and white
etchings could express atmosphere and—perhaps surprisingly—colour.

Clifford S
Ackley in “Printmaking in the Age of Rembrandt,” for instance, proposes that
the artist was “searching for the black and white equivalent of the golden haze
of southern light that vaporises or makes the forms of the landscape
translucent …” (p. 176).

Ackley also summaries
Both’s method of achieving this effect of a golden haze in his prints that is
so much a part of his paintings: “[using] … slanting open parallel shading
lines … [to] suggest not only the translucency of the shadows but the path of
the sun’s rays. Passages of bitten granular tone comparable to that which
occurs in some of Rembrandt’s etched landscapes of the 1640s combine with
Both’s masses of fine scribbling lines to lay stress on the broader patterns of
southern light and shadow rather than on contour drawing.” (ibid).

Condition: well-printed and rich
impression in near pristine condition.

-->

-->

I am selling
this original etching by Haden for AU$155 AUD (currently
US$114.01/EUR101.74/GBP80.82 at the time of posting this print) including
postage and handling to anywhere in the world. If you are interested
in purchasing this powerful image by one of the most famous English
printmakers, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send
you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

-->

Haden offers the following
fascinating words of advice to those interested in prints:

“Every stroke the etcher makes tells
strongly against him if it be bad, or proves him to be a master if it is good.
In no branch of art does a touch go for so much. … one stroke in the right
place tells more for him than ten in the wrong, … His great labour is to
select, to keep his subject open, to preserve breadth, to establish his planes,
and to secure for them space, light, and air” (Richard S Schneiderman [1983] “A
Catalogue Raisonne of the Prints of Seymour Haden”, Robin Garton, Wilshire, pp.
7–8).

I am selling this superb lithograph exemplifying the highest order of drawing
for a total cost of AU$136 (currently US$100.33/EUR89.18/GBP70.54 at the time
of posting this print) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.
If you are interested in purchasing this remarkable original lithograph, please
contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal
invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

-->

As is the case with many of
Julien's lithographs this beautifully executed study was designed for art
students to copy—albeit, very advanced students.

This print was part of a program of study wherein students began by copying
critical features of faces guided by illustrations revealing the essential
lines of construction. Once the fundamentals were mastered drawings like this
one offered the final challenge to copy before students changed their name to
masters of their craft.